Awareness of the troubles transgender individuals face in the workforce is on the rise in Japan, and companies are increasingly making efforts to make the working environment more accepting, earning a favorable response both from inside the companies and from customers. The Mainichi Shimbun interviewed some of these firms about what measures were effective in making the atmosphere more accepting. “If I hadn’t found this company, I probably would have given up on a career and just done part-time work,” recalls a 24-year-old transgender individual who was hired by an employment agency in April 2016. They said living as a “woman” was painful, and during their job hunt, interviewers would only ask about the person’s biological sex.